“It will gradually become apparent that at particular moments when there is within a society a crisis of belief…the sheer material factualness of the human body will be borrowed to lend that cultural construct the aura of ‘realness’ and ‘certainty.’ – Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (1985) Suffering from Realness explores the politics of representation — and the ways in which artists use the body to grasp at and re-center the “aura…

We interact with an infinity of objects from birth to the grave. Over time our ‘belongings’ become more steeped and resonant with memory and nostalgia. In many ways, personal objects express aspects of who we are — our identity: our values: our statements and choices. The passages of time through which we exist become defined by the objects with which we interact. The artefacts contained within the earthen mound — partially buried — partially excavated — have all played a…

Cauleen Smith describes her work as a reflection on “the everyday possibilities of the imagination.” Trained as a filmmaker, the multidisciplinary artist creates visual and phenomenological experiences that ruminate on social, cultural, intellectual, artistic, and political liberation. Her stunning works draw on poetry, Afrofuturism, science fiction, and tactics of experimental film to conjure alternative narratives and what the artist has called “a cornucopia of future histories.” She engages topics and influences as disparate as the African Diaspora, the image of…